1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and a packet communication method of the wireless communication system, and more particularly to a wireless communication system which can improve throughput of a wireless network and a packet communication method of the wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless communication system, wireless devices are wirelessly connected to one another through an access point. A conventional access point can receive only one packet at the same time, but a recent access point can simultaneously receive a plurality of packets with the advent of multiuser detection (MUD), the development of signal processing technology, and the advent of multi-antenna technology. At this time, the number of packets receivable at the same time is defined by multi-packet reception capability (hereinafter also referred to as MPR capability). In a current wireless communication system, MPR capability is set as a certain value regardless of actual MPR capability, and thus packets are received from the wireless device at the rate set by the MPR capability.
However, the MPR capability is varied depending upon mobility of the wireless device, the structure of a wireless communication system and the kind of wireless device. Thus, when the MPR capability set in the wireless communication system is lower than actual MPR capability, resources of the wireless communication system are wasted. In other words, usable resources are not used and network throughput is lowered. On the other hand, if the MPR capability set in the wireless communication system is higher than the actual MPR capability, it is impossible to decode signals simultaneously received at the access point, thereby deteriorating stability of the wireless communication system.
Such problems occur more significantly due to increase in the number of wireless devices to be used in a limited space, increase in communication traffic, increase in mobility of a wireless device, limited resources of a wireless network, and so on.
Under such background, there is a need for technology in which throughput of a wireless network is improved by allowing maximum use of MPR capability in a wireless communication system.